Joba Chamberlain spoke with reporters for the first time on Tuesday since suffering an open dislocation in his ankle while jumping on a trampoline last Thursday night. As expected, Joba downplayed the severity of his accident and said that his life was never in danger.

JOBA ON EXAGGERATED REPORTS: “It’s one of those things where I know there wasn’t a lot that you guys had out there when it happened,” Joba said. “But it’s one of those things that bothers me, too, that people are calling me and asking me if it’s life-threatening and if I was going to lose my foot. There was no bone even out of my ankle. It was something that bothered me to have my family go through that.”

“There was blood…it wasn’t like it was squirting and spewing.” Joba said, “It wasn’t that painful. It really wasn’t.”

CASHMAN CLARIFIES JOBA’S STATEMENTS: “It was an open dislocation of the subtalar joint,” said Yankees GM Brian Cashman after the press conference. “In layman’s terms, an open dislocation of his right ankle. But he had an open dislocation.”

“There was exposed bone and stuff like that from his heel because the skin got compromised,” Cashman said. “I talked to the doctor to reconfirm and then I went to Joba to reconfirm. And both Joba and the doctor were on the same page.”

JOBA ON A POTENTIAL 2012 RETURN: “I am going to continue to work hard to be ahead of schedule or right on schedule,” said Chamberlain. “Obviously there are a lot of things that have to happen before that — the mere fact that what we have been told, no broken bones. I don’t have to worry about running the bases, so that is another thing that goes along with this. I think there is a great chance of that definitely happening (George King of the NY Post).”

CASHMAN ON A POTENTIAL 2012 RETURN: “There’s a chance he can and there’s a chance he might not,” Cashman said. “Could he be back as soon as this year? Yes. Could be back next year? Yes. Is this something that could be a real issue for him going forward [that] he never gets back? Yes. But I’m optimistic the best-case scenario will work out.”

JOBA: I LET MY TEAM DOWN: “I’ve never questioned being a father. I felt like I let my team down, to be perfectly honest with you, and that’s the most frustrating part. But when I look back and realize what was going on, I will never question being a father. This game is very important to me, it allows me to do a lot of things. But my son is my pride and joy.”

CASHMAN ON VOIDING JOBA’S CONTRACT: “Whatever our rights are, they are our rights,” Cashman said. “It’s not like a situation where somebody punched a wall. This is an accident. Punching a wall like Kevin Brown did, that wasn’t an accident. I choose not to pile on (King again).”

About Rob Abruzzese

Rob Abruzzese created Bronx Baseball Daily in 2008 just before graduating from Brooklyn College. He currently serves BBD as its editor and works as a reporter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Follow Rob on Twitter @RobAbruzzese.

2 thoughts on “Joba speaks for the 1st time following trampoline attack”

This is very good news. The reports had been that Joba had an open FRACTURE, with a shard of broken bone piercing through the skin. That kind of fracture raised a big risk of bone infection, which could have ended his career.
An open DISLOCATION is bad, but should not pose the same magnitude of risk.
Still, even mundane dislocations can take six weeks to heal, and this sounds like a bad dislocation. Hopefully we will see him back in a few months.

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